A run ‘n gun filmmaker’s POV on the business and creative world of new media and web tv

The Hayley Project: Day 20

August 9, 2007

Day 20 – Tuesday. We had another intense morning today. We had to shoot 2 scenes with our detective actors who had hard stops at 1230. The locations were great but we had to move fast. We shot out the interrogation scene using hand-held style, which was a nice change of pace. I think it’s going to come out great. For the second scene, we just did one 2-shot to shoot out the detectives as fast as possible. Mike had to go back to Scranton by the evening and resume his duties as a fireman. Our second actor Dan let us shoot for a half an hour more which was a big “save”, so we didn’t have to reschedule this for later.

After the detective actors left, we went back to the second scene, and Rachel was forced to act against me and another person (definitely not the ideal situation). But she did great. I had to leave after this scene but we still had another scene that afternoon to complete. I heard later that Jato and crew completed most of it, but missed a few reverse shots that we would have to pick up later. I think at this point, it’s not smart to leave any scene incomplete. We should really just force ourselves to finish them even if it means dropping a few shots. I know it’s tough because we don’t have an experienced crew to support Jato, but I’m not happy that this scene wasn’t complete. It’s not so much about continuity as it is that our schedule is tight already, and we don’t have time to luxuriate. But I wasn’t there to force this issue.

I’m out again tomorrow for personal reasons but hopefully the team can wrap up the beginning piece of what we shot yesterday, and also the part we cut out yesterday. If we get those, we’ve got an ending. I think the stress of these days is starting to hit Rachel a little which is understandable. But we’re in the home stretch and the light is at the end of the tunnel.